Nathan J Wood, Ph.D.
Nathan Wood is a supervisory research geographer with the USGS Western Geographic Science Center.
He supervises the WGSC Hazard Vulnerability Team that specializes in societal-vulnerability science, geospatial modeling, and web mapping applications. He has conducted research and written extensively on community vulnerability to natural hazards, such as asset exposure, demographic sensitivity, and pedestrian evacuation modeling. He has done work related to tsunami threats in Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Alaska, American Samoa, and Guam; volcanic hazards in Washington and California; and coastal hazards in California, the Pacific Northwest, and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. He also works with natural scientists to model and create national-scale hazard maps, including landslide, sinkhole, and Valley Fever susceptibility. He is a co-leader of a project characterizing multi-hazard risk for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He is a USGS representative for the Coordinating Committee of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program.
Professional Experience
2014 – Current: Supervisory Research Geographer, USGS Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC)
2001 – 2014: Research Geographer, USGS WGSC
1999-2001: Project Manager, Extension Sea Grant, Oregon State University
1998-1999: Instructor, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Geography, Oregon State University, 2002
M.S. Marine Science, University of South Florida, 1996
B.S. Geology, Duke University, 1993